The speaker for September’s UHI Archaeology Institute research seminar was Mairi MacLean, who discussed how human and animal populations were distributed across the Hebrides in the Neolithic and Bronze Age.
The Hebrides are widely portrayed, and perceived, as being remote and isolated. But was this the case in prehistory? Mairi questioned whether the reputation for insularity in prehistory is deserved.
Samples of both human and animal populations were taken and analysed using radiocarbon dating, Bayesian modelling and stable isotope analysis. These allowed an insight into residency across the Hebridean archipelagos, both geographically and temporally.
